Teaching Computer Concepts with Robots Animation and Multi-Media

Teaching Computer Concepts with Robots, Animation, and Multi-Media Barbara Ericson Georgia Tech ericson@cc. gatech. edu http: //coweb. cc. gatech. edu/ice-gt/

There is a Shortage of CS Students n The number of CS majors has dropped 40% since 2001 • Nationwide n The percentage of women has dropped to about 15% • From a high of about 40% in the early 80 s n Projections of 46% job growth over the next 10 years! • Microsoft currently has 5, 000 unfilled jobs

Why the Huge Drop in Students? n Myth #1 • All computing jobs are going overseas Only about 2 -3% have n There actually more jobs now in this area than in 2001 n The US Labor Department predicts that computer software engineers and computer systems designers will be among the fastest growing occupations in 2002 -2012 n

Why the Huge Drop in Students? n Myth #2 • Only geeks do well in computing

Who is in Computer Science? They all are!

Why the Huge Drop in Students? n Myth #3 • You have to like to play computer games n Professionals in computing • Say that you should like: Problem solving n Working with others in a team n Being creative n

Why the Huge Drop in Students? n Myth #4 • The job is boring! • Introductory classes are often boring n Students find the examples irrelevant, and tedious • Computer Science juniors are often surprised how creative it is Once you are past the early classes n Example: Digital Video Special Effects n

Interesting, Creative, Lucrative Job n Money Magazine rated software engineer the #1 job in 2006 • Flexibility: pick your hours • Creativity: highest grade of any job • Growth 44, 800 average job openings a year • Average Pay: $80, 500 to 6 figures n Computer IT Analyst was #7

Making Computing Interesting n n Free software for creating animations and games using drag-and-drop programming Free software for multi-media programming • in Python or Java n Robots • • • LEGO robots Pico. Crickets Scratch Boards

Scratch Video n Free software • from MIT n n Used to create 2 D animations and games Drag-anddrop programming

Sample Student Work

What can you teach with Scratch? n n n n variables loops conditionals event-driven programming message passing complex Booleans (and, or, not) geometry concepts

Alice n Free software • from CMU n n Used to create 3 D animations and games Drag-and-drop programming

Sample Student Work

What can you teach using Alice? n Basics of Object-Oriented Programming • • • n Objects and Classes Methods and Parameters Sequential and parallel execution Inheritance Iteration (looping) Conditionals Recursion Lists and list processing Arrays Algorithm design, implementation, and testing Basics of Event-driven programming

Future of Alice v 3. 0 n Adding Sims characters from EA • the best selling game of all time n Will be in Java • Can still do dragand-drop n Beta by Dec 2008

Media Computation n Teaching computing concepts using programs that manipulate media • Iteration as a way to modify all pixels in a picture to negate the picture • Conditionals as a way to remove red eye from a picture or to do chromakey n n n Covers CS 1 and CS 2 topics Developed at Georgia Tech Can use Python or Java

Negate Method in Java /** * Method to negate the picture */ public void negate() { Pixel[] pixel. Array = this. get. Pixels(); Pixel pixel. Obj = null; int red. Value, blue. Value, green. Value = 0; { // get the current pixel. Obj = pixel. Array[i]; // get the values red. Value = pixel. Obj. get. Red(); green. Value = pixel. Obj. get. Green(); blue. Value = pixel. Obj. get. Blue(); // loop through all the pixels for (int i = 0; i < pixel. Array. length; i++) } // set the pixel's color pixel. Obj. set. Color( new Color(255 - red. Value, 255 - green. Value, 255 - blue. Value)); }

Negate Method in Python def negative(picture): for px in get. Pixels(picture): red=get. Red(px) green=get. Green(px) blue=get. Blue(px) neg. Color=make. Color(255 -red, 255 green, 255 -blue) set. Color(px, neg. Color)

What can you teach using Media Computation? n CS 1 (AP CS A) or CS 2 (AB CS AB) content: • • • Objects and Classes Methods and Parameters Inheritance Interfaces Iteration (looping) Conditionals Recursion Lists and list processing Arrays Algorithm design, implementation, and testing Software engineering concepts Data Structures

Greenfoot n n n Free software from the University of Kent Use to create 2 D simulations and games in Java Can run Grid. World in it Don't have to stick to a grid Runs on top of Blue. J

Greenfoot Scenarios

What can you teach with Greenfoot? n n CS 1 (AP CS A) and CS 2 (AP CS AB) content Simulations Key event handling Object-oriented programming • objects, classes, inheritance, polymorphism n Java

LEGO Mindstorms NXT

LEGO Mindstorms RIS 2. 0 n A kit for creating and programming robots built with LEGOs

Mindstorms NXT vs RIS n n n $250 or with software for $279 431 elements 3 motors (with built-in rotation sensors) Storage bin with two sorting trays 2 touch sensors, 1 light sensor, 1 sound sensor, 1 ultrasonic sensor, 3 lamps Comes with rechargeable battery n $200 for team challenge set • software separate for $69 n n 717 elements 2 motors (rotation sensors are extra) Have to buy sorting trays 2 touch sensors, 1 light sensor

What can you teach with LEGO Robots? n Procedural programming • variables • loops • conditionals • creating your own blocks (functions or methods) • parameters • debugging • testing

Pico. Crickets n n Arts and Crafts kit for the digital age Based on research at MIT • on programmable bricks • same origin as LEGO Mindstorms robots n Sells for $250

Ideas for Cricket Projects

What can you teach with Crickets? n n n n Loops Conditionals Variables Input and output Problem solving Testing Multiple threading

Scratch Board n Board to add input to Scratch programs • • • n light sensor touch button sound sensor resistance sensors slider Costs $25 a board • plus $5 shipping per order

Computing Resources n n n Scratch http: //scratch. mit. edu Alice http: //www. alice. org Media Computation • http: //coweb. cc. gatech. edu/media. Comp-teach n n Greenfoot http: //www. greenfoot. org LEGO Mindstorms • http: //www. lego. com/eng/education/mindstorms/ n n Pico. Crickets http: //www. picocricket. com/ Lending Libraries at Georgia Tech • http: //coweb. cc. gatech. edu/ice-gt/500 n Teacher workshops at Georgia Tech • http: //coweb. cc. gatech. edu/ice-gt/ • Barb Ericson ericson@cc. gatech. edu